So, 4 1/2 years after the fact,  Moises Alou tells a reporter that he couldn't have caught the Bartman ball, so we ought to let Steve Bartman off the hook for blowing the 2003 pennant for the Cubs.

Not me. Marmalard, he's a dead man. Neidermeyer . . . .dead!  Bartman . . . . . .

All together now Cub fans —  and I mean Cub fans, the ones that go wayyyyyyyy back with the team, who ones who served Old Style and Smokie LInks at their wedding, who lined up a 6 a.m. to get a spot among the Bleacher Bums for a double header, the ones who can tell you who the College of Coaches were, the ones who rushed home from school every day to catch the last three innings on WGN, the one's with vested interest who have the EXCLUSIVE right to comment on it, nobody else no matter how knowledgeable or sensible . . . . . . .   DEAD!

Of course, I mean dead in a punch-to-the-arm sort of way . . not actually dead, but in no way am I absolving Steve Bartman of his role in the demolition of the Cubs in Game 6 of the 2003 NLDS.

No. 1, I don't believe Alou. Look at the replays, which he needs to do again. His glove is high above the wall, under the flight of the ball just as its  being deflected off Bartman's hands. But let's pretend for a minute that Alou's right and he couldn't have caught it. Let's even go so far as to say the ball wasn't in the field of play, which it might not have been.

Don't care. Bartman had no business going after it. . . not at that time, not in that situation, not with all the history leading up to that moment, not with what was on the line for suffering Cubs fans.  If you're going to have that seat, in that game, there is responsibility that goes with it, and Bartman disrespected it.

The question is what was his intent? His intent was to catch the ball. Would he have held back had the ball been out six inches further?  I don't think so, so it doesn't matter if Alou could have caught the ball or not.

I get this argument all the time - - "well, the fans have the same rights to the ball as the players do as long as it's in foul territory."  Maybe in San Francisco they do, in the middle of August during another lost season, not when 97 years of frustrations, the apocalypse of 1969, the curses and all other voodoo that might be inflicting misery in Cubdom can be washed away with spectacular catch of a baseball in foul ground.

Of course then Alex Gonzalez has  to  actually field the ground ball that came next . . .